Sports sticks used generally include climbing sticks and ski sticks. The sports sticks are designed in the form of a general stick needed for the purpose of body balancing, reduction of physical fitness consumption, and rapid and easy walking during climbing a mountain covered with snow or climbing a general mountain, and normally, the sticks are adjustable to desired lengths.
The stick is configured in a two-stepped or multi-stepped fashion in such a manner as to be freely adjustable to a desired length according to a user's physical shape.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional sports stick, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a portion ‘A’ in FIG. 1 wherein the fixing means of the conventional sports stick is released from its fixing state, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the portion ‘A’ in FIG. 1 wherein the fixing means of the conventional sports stick is at a fixing state.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the conventional sports stick includes: an upper tube 10 constituting the outer shape thereof; a lower tube 20 having a smaller diameter than the upper tube 10 and adapted to be inserted into and withdrawn from the upper tube 10. The upper tube 10 has a cap member 70 disposed at the lower end periphery thereof in such a manner as to cover a portion of the lower tube 20 inserted into the upper tube 10, and fixing means 1 is disposed between the upper tube 10 and the lower tube 20 so as to adjust the length of the lower tube 20 to be withdrawn from the upper tube 10.
The fixing means 1 includes a friction member 40, a pressurizing member 60, and an escape-preventing member 50.
The friction member 40 is disposed inside the lower tube 20 of the stick in such a manner as to be fixed to a rod body 30 having a predetermined length exposed from the top end of the lower tube 20. At this time, the friction member 40 has a tapered surface formed along the top end outer periphery thereof and has a parallel surface to the lengthwise direction along the lower end outer periphery thereof. The pressurizing member 60 is mounted on the rod body 30 after the friction member 40 is secured to the rod body 30.
After the pressurizing member 60 is mounted on the rod body 30, the escape-preventing member 50 is fastened along the uppermost end periphery of the rod body 30 so as to prevent the pressurizing member 60 from escaping from the rod body 30.
In order to adjust the length of the stick, as shown in FIG. 2, if the lower tube 20 is taken by a user's hand and the upper tube 10 is turned in a screw-unfastening direction to release the fixing state of the fixing means 1 to the upper tube 10, the pressurizing member 60 is moved upwardly along the outer peripheral surface of the friction member 40 such that the fixing means 1 is released from the fixing state thereof.
After the length of the stick is adjusted, if the lower tube 20 is taken by the user' hand and the upper tube 10 is turned in a screw-fastening direction, as shown in FIG. 3, the fixing means 1 is fixed to the upper tube 10. That is, since the pressurizing member 60 is brought into close contact with the upper tube 10, it is moved downwardly along the screw portion of the rod body 30 by the force generated upon turning the upper tube 10. The pressuring member 60 is moved downwardly along the tapered surface formed on the top end periphery of the friction member 40 fixed to the rod body 30 and is extended in the diameter by the groove formed in a lengthwise direction thereof, thereby coming into close contact with the upper tube 10 and fixing to the upper tube 10. At this time, the inner peripheral surface of the pressurizing member 60 is point-contacted with the tapered surface of the friction member 40.
In other words, since the pressurizing member 50 and the friction member 40 being at the point-contacted state therebetween do not have any reliable fixing force to the upper tube 10, the fixing means 1 being at the fixing state is unexpectedly released due to the strong load applied to the downward direction of the stick while in use, which gives many inconveniences in use and does not ensure a user's safety.